insanity

insanity

[in-san´ĭ-te]

a medically obsolete term for mental derangement or disorder. Insanity is now a purely legal term, denoting a condition due to which a person lacks criminal responsibility for a crime and therefore cannot be convicted of it. adj., insane´.

in·san·i·ty

(in-san'i-tē), This is a legal term denoting mental incompetence and moral irresponsibility but having no specific medical meaning.

1. An outmoded term referring to severe mental illness or psychosis.

2. In law, the degree of mental illness that negates the patient's legal responsibility or capacity.

[L. in- neg. + sanus, sound]

insanity

/in·san·i·ty/ (in-san´it-e) a legal term for mental illness of such degree that the individual is not responsible for his or her acts.insane´

insanity

[insan′itē]

Etymology: L, in, not, sanus, sound

Usage notes: (informal)

a term used more in legal and social than in medical terminology. It refers to those mental illnesses that are of such a serious or debilitating nature as to interfere with one's capability of functioning within the legal limits of society and performing the normal activities of daily living.

Forensics A legal and social term for a condition that renders the affected person unfit to enjoy liberty of action, because of the unreliability of his behaviour with concomitant danger to himself and others; insanity denotes, by extension, a degree of mental illness that negates legal responsibility for one’s actionsPsychiatry A vague obsolete term for psychosis

insanity

Forensic medicine A legal and social term for a condition that renders the affected person unfit to enjoy liberty of action, because of the unreliability of his behavior with concomitant danger to himself and others; insanity denotes, by extension, a degree of mental illness that negates legal responsibility for one's actions. See Psychosis, Temporary insanity Psychiatry A vague obsolete term for psychosis.

in·san·i·ty

(in-san'i-tē)

1. A nonmedical term referring to severe mental illness or psychosis.

2. law That degree of mental illness that negates the person's legal responsibility or capacity.

[L. in- neg. + sanus, sound]

insanity

A legal rather than a medical term, implying a disorder of the mind of such degree as to interfere with a person's ability to be legally responsible for his or her actions. The term is little used in medicine but might equate to PSYCHOSIS. A defence of insanity, in law, is governed by the McNaughten Rules. These state, in part, ‘The jurors ought to be told in all cases that every man is presumed to be sane and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be proved to their satisfaction: and that to establish a defence on the grounds of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.’

The psychological conception [of insanity] is based on the view that mental processes can be directly studied without any reference to the accompanying changes which are presumed to take place in the brain, and that insanity may therefore be properly attacked from the standpoint of psychology"(p.

Before Death BEFORE death comes to me I want to smell the pine tree Look out over the blue sea Sit by a river with you sitting next to me I want to walk over a stone bridge look down at the valley from a high ridge I want to walk down a country lane, smell the heather the ripened grain See the partridge quail pheasant with its long tail I want to stand on a pier as the tall ships with their white sails silently move up river to their resting place to dock and weigh anchor I want to see a peaceful world where children have smiles upon their face Instead of pain as they sit in dereliction squalor and starvation I want to see governments of all nations pay for their insanity I want humanity to mean humanity I want a perfect world Which is in itself insanity.

LOUIS THEROUX: BY REASON OF INSANITY BBC2, 9pm In the second of his two-part strand, the reporter meets more NGRI (Not guilty by reason of Insanity) patients in Cincinnati, Ohio who have been detained for treatment rather than punishment.

Louis Theroux: By Reason of Insanity BBC Two Wales, 9pm In the second of his two-part strand, the eponymous reporter meets more NGRI (Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity) patients in Cincinnati, Ohio, who have been detained for treatment rather than punishment.

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